Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Shares Sold by Nuveen Asset Management LLC

Nuveen Asset Management LLC decreased its position in Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) by 0.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,088,249 shares of the company’s stock after selling 7,271 shares during the quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC owned 0.49% of Qiagen worth $48,477,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in QGEN. Groupama Asset Managment raised its holdings in Qiagen by 8,074.0% during the fourth quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 31,817,740 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,416,844,000 after purchasing an additional 32,216,761 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Qiagen in the 4th quarter valued at $181,529,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in Qiagen by 9.5% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 25,319,332 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,127,470,000 after buying an additional 2,202,040 shares during the period. Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations acquired a new position in Qiagen in the 4th quarter valued at $53,991,000. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of Qiagen by 170.6% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,849,004 shares of the company’s stock worth $84,259,000 after purchasing an additional 1,165,594 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on QGEN shares. Redburn Atlantic lowered shares of Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Qiagen from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Qiagen from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Baird R W lowered Qiagen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $48.42.

Qiagen Price Performance

Shares of NYSE QGEN opened at $42.77 on Tuesday. Qiagen has a fifty-two week low of $37.63 and a fifty-two week high of $49.30. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $41.03 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $41.82. The company has a quick ratio of 3.09, a current ratio of 3.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The firm has a market cap of $9.51 billion, a PE ratio of 119.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.67.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $483.46 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $465.66 million. Qiagen had a return on equity of 13.92% and a net margin of 4.23%. Qiagen’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.44 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Qiagen will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Qiagen

QIAGEN NV is a holding company, which engages in the provision of Sample to Insight solutions that enable customers to gain valuable molecular insights from samples containing the building blocks of life. The company sample technologies isolate and process DNA, RNA, and proteins from blood, tissue, and other materials.